Friday, March 20, 2009

The Lice Lesson

So I was visiting a family in Belen the other day, talking with the parents to get the information neccessary to register one of their daughters (and a participant in our workshop) in the national registary. As of this moment, she does not have a birthcertificate, and thus in the eyes of the government, she does not exist. It's a little scary to see how many of these kids do not have birtcertificates, and almost equally disturbing how many parents have no idea when their children (or themselves) were born!

Anyway, as we were making one of these visits, one of my girls from the workshop started playing with my hair. I was just enjoying the feeleing, when suddenly I started noticing that she was pulling something out of my hair and then eating it! What IS that? I asked her. She just smiled, pulled out a small little insect (also known as lice), and put it in her mouth.

That day I learned two important things:
1. Children eat lice. I guess that's normal here.
2. Lice love me. This is the third time I've gotten them. (Either that, or the lice cures are not very effective.. Maybe I'll just chose to believe the latter explanation).

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